Angry Malcolm Fraser quits Liberals

Malcolm Fraser, the former Liberal Prime Minister, has resigned from the party he once led, saying it is no longer a liberal party and that he cannot stomach the way the federal party conducts its affairs.

Malcolm Fraser, the former Liberal prime minister, has resigned from the party he once led, saying it is no longer a liberal party and he cannot stomach the way it operates.

His resignation will be seen as a defining moment in the party’s shift to the right and will be a blow to those remaining “small l" liberals in the party.

Sources say Mr Fraser gets on personally with Tony Abbott but sees the current party leader as “all over the place" on policy.

He is said to believe the party dumped its previous leader, Malcolm Turnbull, as much as anything because he was a liberal, and that liberal views and attitudes were now very low on the party’s agenda.

Old colleagues say he was particularly angry about the first television advertisement for this year’s election campaign which aired recently and showed Australia being overwhelmed by a series of red arrows indicating hordes of asylum seekers swamping the country.

Mr Fraser has told friends the ad – with its “red menace" overtones – was a “throwback to a racist past, and not just for the Liberal Party but for Australia" and that he was ­appalled the party had included the images in its official advertising material.

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On Melbourne radio yesterday, Mr Fraser publicly criticised the opposition’s stance on the Rudd government’s expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the forged passports affair, questioning what had happened to the party’s previous “even-handed" policy towards Israel and Palestine.

However, he has also been critical of the current Labor government, saying on ABC television on Monday night the administrative failures of Labor were “as great, if not greater, than the administrative failures in Gough Whitlam’s government".

News of his resignation comes as the Coalition party room in Canberra yesterday had a spirited debate about its policy directions – and specifically whether it was conservative enough.

Facing criticism from some conservative MPs about his proposal for paid maternity leave, Mr Abbott told the party room that while he was “as conservative as anyone in this room", true conservatives moved with the times, and that the opposition was “not going to be an action replay of the Howard government.’’

It also comes as opinion polls show that the Coalition has closed the gap on Labor on the primary vote, but has been unable to capitalise on the full drop in the government’s standing with voters, with a considerable number of the voters abandoning the government going to the Greens.

Mr Fraser resigned from the Liberal Party in December, shortly after Mr Abbott replaced Mr Turnbull as the federal parliamentary leader.

He told Mr Abbott and the party’s Victorian president, David Kemp, who both lobbied him to change his mind, that he would not do anything to publicise his decision.

Both men had asked Mr Fraser to debate the issues of difference he had with the party within the party.

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He confirmed his decision after The Australian Financial Review had learned of his move and contacted him yesterday, indicating he believes the party is no longer a liberal party but a conservative party, but declining to discuss his decision.

The resignation represents a great historic irony because another former Liberal prime minister, John Gorton (who lost the prime ministership in 1971 after Mr Fraser resigned as defence minister, accusing Mr Gorton of gross disloyalty) resigned from the Liberal Party after Mr Fraser became leader in 1975.

The bitterness of the events of 1971 led to Mr Gorton standing unsuccessfully in the 1975 federal election as an independent Senate candidate in the ACT after the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, sacked the Whitlam government and appointed Mr Fraser, the then opposition leader, in his place.

However in a continued link with his Victorian party division, Mr Fraser has told Victorian Liberal leader Ted Baillieu he will “do anything he can to support him" in the election campaign ahead of the November state poll, according to friends of Mr Fraser. But it is understood that Mr Fraser cannot come to terms with the current policies and attitudes of the federal Liberal Party and the way it conducts its affairs.

His resignation brings to a formal close a difficult relationship between the Liberal Party and one of only two of its living former prime ministers – a relationship that has become more difficult over the years as the party has shifted to the right.

Mr Fraser (who led the party to victory in 1975, 1977 and 1980 before being defeated by Bob Hawke in 1983) was perceived in office as a hardliner on economic issues, particularly after the Whitlam years. But he had a very progressive social agenda, extending from Aboriginal land rights to the acceptance of large numbers of Vietnamese boat people, and was one of the last of the pragmatic centre in the conservative Coalition parties.

He came to be seen in his party after he left office as having squandered the opportunities posed by his control of both houses of Parliament after the 1977 election.

This view left a deep mark on the Howard- era party and helped frame its aggressive approach to its legislative agenda when it gained control of the Senate after the 2004 election. This including its controversial – and ultimately politically disastrous – Work Choices industrial relations reforms.

Mr Fraser was a consistent critic of the Howard government, particularly over its policies on asylum seekers, and on its approach to terrorism laws, civil liberties and the war in Iraq

He has told old colleagues that the party’s founder, Robert Menzies, always stressed the rule of law and equal access to the law. But the anti-terrorism legislation introduced in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks meant that Australia was now the only country with the power to arrest people who were known to be innocent.

Laura Tingle writes on News specialising in Politics, Policy, Economy. Based in our Canberra newsroom, Laura has over 30 years experience as a reporter covering markets, economics and politics. Laura has won two Walkley awards and the Paul Lyneham award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism. She has been highly commended by the Walkley judges for investigative reporting. Connect with Laura on Facebook and Twitter.